Liza thought she was prepared to lose her father—but coping is harder than she ever imagined

When Liza’s dad finds out he has less than a year to live, he asks his family to help him make his remaining time as happy as possible. After the initial shock, twelve-year-old Liza, her three siblings, and their mother resolve to make her dad’s last year wonderful—especially on Christmas, his favorite holiday.

Liza tries hard to prepare herself for living without him. But after he’s gone, she finds that she is still not ready—and maybe she never will be. The family, now faced with financial problems, has to move into a smaller home, which adds to their tension and anger. As another holiday season approaches, Liza feels celebrating without her dad is disloyal, and boycotts the holiday.

Liza’s search for the courage to face her grief, anger, and guilt will resonate with readers of any age who have survived the loss of a loved one.

This ebook features an illustrated personal history of Ann M. Martin, including rare images from the author’s collection.

“A lyrical masterpiece.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

Originally performed at the Kennedy Center for the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and later as a tribute to Walter Dean Myers, this stirring and inspirational poem is New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds’s rallying cry to the young dreamers of the world.

For Every One is exactly that: for every one. For every one person. For every one who has a dream. But especially for every kid. The kids who dream of being better than they are. Kids who dream of doing more than they almost dare to imagine. Kids who are like Jason Reynolds, a self-professed dreamer. Jason does not claim to know how to make dreams come true; he has, in fact, been fighting on the front line of his own battle to make his own dreams a reality. He expected to make it when he was sixteen. Then eighteen. Then twenty-five. Now, some of those expectations have been realized. But others, the most important ones, lay ahead, and a lot of them involve kids, how to inspire them: All the kids who are scared to dream, or don’t know how to dream, or don’t dare to dream because they’ve NEVER seen a dream come true. Jason wants kids to know that dreams take time. They involve countless struggles. But no matter how many times a dreamer gets beat down, the drive and the passion and the hope never fully extinguishes—because simply having the dream is the start you need, or you won’t get anywhere anyway, and that is when you have to take a leap of faith.

A pitch-perfect graduation, baby, or inspirational gift for anyone who needs to me reminded of their own abilities—to dream.